Quilt Around Chautauqua

This past weekend the annual Quilt Around Chautauqua/Fall Festival was held at Chautauqua Institution. Since I work there I couldn't wait to spend the weekend surrounded by quilters and their gorgeous creations! And boy was I not disappointed. The quality and craftsmanship that was on display was like nothing I'd ever seen. And there were SO many! The Festival was spread throughout the Institute in 10 buildings, each dedicated to a guild or two. The hotel I work at fed nearly 300 people per meal and housed 250! I've never been around so many quilters in my life.
It was impossible NOT to feel inspired by the work I saw. The patterns and color choices and variations of different ideas; truly awesome. My sister and I literally walked from quilt to quilt doing the "oohs and ahhs" and pointing out the ones we loved (my sisters boyfriends followed along, putting his input in from time to time. such a good sport). What was even more fun was running into a lot of the ladies that we quilt with, many of whom knew our grandmother. It's always a pleasure to chat and catch up with them. Cassie and I aren't sure if we'll be able to make it to the retreat this fall so we've already decided that if we can't we'll just have our own retreat and visit the ladies at the camp. It will be fun regardless.
So here are some of my favorites from the show. I hope your enjoy them and are inspired as well! 

a wall of fall!

on of my favorites! I SO want to make a Halloween something!

tooooo cute!

PUMPKINS!! yay

My Friend Kim and her friend made these!

 They bought one cut of each fabric and divied them up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

these colors are to die for and I LOVE the snail trail pattern.

update

I know I've been pretty sparse in my posting lately but it's for good reason! I've been working on a few gifts lately so I can't go posting pictures of them for all to see! That would ruin all the fun. BUT I will say that I'm almost done with them so once they are given I will be able to show them off here.

I haven't been a total waste of space!

In other news, my sewing station has been all packed up for my moms house warming party this weekend I simply can not wait to get it all out next week and work on some projects. I've been over flowing with creative ideas lately that I'm thrilled to finally try. It should be good stuff.

So be patient and stay tuned my loves. I promise as soon as I can show you the goods I will! 

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Ravelry

The other day I was searching around the world wide web for some knitting patterns and happened to stumble across the coolest site! It's called Ravelry and it's basically a facebook-esque site for knitter and crocheters to share projects, patterns, and all things fiberous! Needless to say I was in heaven. I had taken a bit of a vacation from knitting so finding this site only fueled my fire to get back into it regularly. That day I started a hat and had it finished 2 days later (pretty good for working 70 some hours a week).
So if knitting and/or crocheting is your thing, then check out this site! It's pretty exciting to know that there are tons of people out there in the community who want to share ideas and projects.
{plus on of the questions in your profile is "what's your favorite cuss word?". my answer was "shit". :)

a valance

Again I find myself being ashamed at my lack of posting with this blog. At the same time though, working 3 jobs has kept me from really being able to get much sewing done.

BUT I recently met a woman who needed a valance made and I was able to learn a thing or two. First off, if you want your valance to be wavy and bunchy, BUY 2X the fabric as the length of the window. I made this mistake on the first valance I made. Secondly, put your loop for the rod at the TOP of the valance, instead of attaching it to the back of it. Again, a mistake I made on the first one. With the loop attached to the back it the front of the valance will hang away from the back, making it lay strangely. And finally, if your valance has more than one fabric on the front of it, it's a safe choice to stitch in the ditch and secure the front to the back. Again, this keeps your sides together so they don't poof out, away from one another. I was sooooo pleased with the way the second valance came out, as opposed to the first one. So was the woman that I made it for. It matched her bathroom perfectly!

hung up in my parents bathroom.

new skirt!

A many of you know, or may not know (who knows!), I work part-time at Joann Fabrics. This is truly dangerous as all my paychecks just end up returning to Joann Fabrics! It's a great way to support my craft habit and a terrible way to keep my bills paid. I digress.
So a few months ago I spotted a bolt of fabric in the clearance section that was a thick striped navy and white. INSTANT LOVE. (FYI, I LOVE all things navy....and pumpkin flavored for that matter...anywho). At the time that I found said lovely fabric I didn't really need it nor did I have a plan for it, so I hid it among the other fabrics hoping it would still be there when finance and inspiration crossed paths. About a month later the fates aligned! I decided a skirt would be the best plan of action for my beloved fabric. And boy was I right!

note to self: mirrors make for crappy pictures!

i still love it though

Originally I wanted to have the stripes going sideways but with the pattern I used it was pretty impossible to get the panels to line up. Regardless though, I LOVE the way it turned out. It's a bit piratey but I don't mind, and paired with the right top it looks less piratous.
I have some other clothing projects rolling around in my noggin so hopefully I'll be able to start getting the gears running on them. The beautifully weather is inspiring for some reason so here's hoping.

back on track

photo courtesy of Patty Illingworth

My frequency in posting has been shameful and I apologize. I've been pretty busy lately but luckily that hasn't totally killed my crafting progress. SO to catch things up I'll tell yous about the Spring quilt retreat! What a success! I didn't get to spend as much time at this retreat as I did in the Fall but I felt like I was able to accomplish so much more! I was able to make HUGE progress on the Double Irish Chain for my mom and step-dad; even after messing up an entire row. It felt so good to really see my progress and have it start looking like an actual quilt, instead of a few rows sewn together. And what's even more exciting was that the momentum from the retreat allowed me go home and finish the entire top the week afterwards. My mom adores it! Now I just need to make the back and have it quilted. yay!

finally some REAL progress!

At each retreat one of the ladies will teach anyone who's interested, a quilt pattern. The Spring quilt just happened to be a T SHIRT QUILT!!!! Now, some history: Throughout high school I ran in track and attended an invitational every weekend. At each invitational the school sponsoring it usually sold t-shirts. Of course I had to have one from all the meets! {duh} SO needless to say, between the meets I went to and the team shirts we got each year, Sarah had quite to collection! Towards my sophomore year in college I decided that it was time to start packing these tees away to save for a quilt someday. Over the years I kept my eyes open, in search of a t-shirt quilt pattern that I liked, with little luck. So between not having a pattern and not really having the time, my shirts sat in boxes, awaiting their time to shine. Fast Forward to the Spring retreat and you can only imagine my excitement when I saw the pattern for the quilt being taught this year! It was perfect! Mix and Match sized shirts surrounded by 2 inch squares of whatever fabrics I chose. I dug out all my tees and chose the ones that would be put into the quilt. (What a walk down memory lane) My high school's colors are blue and gold so before the retreat I bought a bunch of fun blue and yellow fat quarters to surround the shirts with. After being taught the process to make the quilt it was all I could do to NOT work on only it for the rest of the weekend. Luckily I didn't take ALL my shirts with me. But I'm super excited about the fabrics I chose and I can't wait to work on it more regularly.

my strips of fabric and some t-shirts

It felt so good to have the time and space to get some real work done for once. And of course seeing the ladies that attend. They are all so sweet and supportive and I can't help but feel good after being with them. I'm so looking forward to the fall retreat and my sister and I have been considering doing the early bird so we can get up there sooner and have more time to work.

CLEARLY we are related...

And not to worry, this WILL NOT be my only post to catch up! I promise! :)